Impeller



Oct. 10, 1933. L H. E. PERLAIN 1 ,929,823

IMPELLER Original Filed May 20, 1950 Patented Oct. 10, 1933 PATE T "OFFICE- IMPELLER Hans E. Perlain, Portland, Oreg.

abandoned May 20,

Refile for application Serial No. 1930. This application November 30, 1931. Serial No. 578,091

1 Claim.

The second object is to provide to special form of impeller which will operate satisfactorily in any wind, regardless of its direction or velocity.

The third object is to increase the cruising radius of water craft due to the highly efficient form of the impeller, in order that the power required may approach the minimum.

The fourth object is to produce an impeller 15 especially adapted for a towing craft which will when not towing any other vessel.

The fifth object is to so design the blades of the impeller, both as to their radial length, pitch and thickness, as to produce the greatest amount 20 of tractive effort with relation to the craft upon which it is mounted.

These, and other objects,will become more apparent from the specification following as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the impeller.

Fig. 2 is a section taken along the line 2-2 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation of the .bow of the boat upon which the impeller is mounted.

Fig. 4 is a section through the blade marked A with dotted lines to show the increased thickness of blades as they approach the axis of the.

shaft. Fig- 5 is a section taken along Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a section taken along the line 6-6 in Fig. 4.

Fig. '7 is a section taken along the line 77 in Fig. 4. 1

Similar numbers of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several'views.

Referring in detail to the drawing, there is shown the bow 10 of a boat upon which is mount- "ed an engine housing 11 for the engine 12 provided with the usual fly wheel 13 and shaft 14, which is joinedby means of a coupling 15 to the impeller shaft 16 whose outer end journals in the bearing 1'7 supported on the outboard standards 18 whose rearmost ends 19 are secured to the sides of the bow 10.

The impeller itself consists of a somewhat conical hub 20 from whose outer surface radiate a plurality of spirally disposed blades A, B, C,'D,

55 and'E, which are uniform in regard to length but the line 55 in operate as efliciently with a heavy tow as it will decrease in thickness from front to rearthat is, the impeller A (which is mounted on the largest radius of the hub 20) is the thinnest, and the impeller E (which is mounted near the axis of the hub 20) is the thickest, as is somewhat diagrammatically shown in Fig. 4.

The object of placing the various blades A to E in a spiral path may be readily seen, inasmuch as each blade is practically cutting new air continually, which is of course very desirable. In addition to this advantage is the improved action of the impeller in a side wind, together with the tendency of producing more of a lateral movement to the air than is otherwise possible. 1

In order to provide a rigidity for the shaft 16 707 it is supported on its foremost end by means of the bearing 17, and the hub 20 is supported with relation to the shaft 16 by means of the flanged disk'2'1, which is secured within the hub'20 and keyed to the shaft 16. The interior of the hub 20 rides at its rearmost end 22 upon the rollers 23 mounted onthe frame 24 whose forward end 25 serves as an intermediate support for the shaft 16. Thrust on the shaftlfi is carried by an antifriction bearing 26 between the collar 27 and the 30 portion 25 of the frame 24.

It will be noted that although the individual blades of the impellers A to E are of the same length, on account of their varying positions on the cone-shaped hub 20 their outermost tips vary in distance from the axis of the shaft 16, as shown in Fig. 1. To offset this condition the thickness of the blades varies accordingly (as shown in Fig. 4) to preserve the proper relation between the balance of the wheel and its centrifugal action.

While this device can be employed with success to a load-carrying device, it is obviously better adapted for use on a specially designed towing craftfor the reason thatthe reaction of the impellers will not be against the hull of the vesselthat is, the towing craft would be designed with a special bow along the line shown in the drawing, which might be objectionable in load-carrying barges which are usually square or blunt at their bow end.

It will be appreciated that the trend of transportation is returning to the waterways, and since there are countless miles of streams which are navigable for small craft vessels, it can be seen that the problem of propulsionis a determining factor in the use of shallow streams for navigation. Other streams of greater depth are often made difiicult to navigate owing to the amount of debris in the water. For such streams, as well peller which I have described operates ontheair only and not upon the water, as is the customary practice.

Attention is drawn to my United States Patent No. 1,834,135 issued Dec. 1, 1931.

I am of course aware that air screws have been employed to move water craft; I therefore do not intend to cover such devices broadly, but I do intend to cover the subject matter disclosed in the appended claim.

I claim:

An impeller having a plurality of blades mounted in a single spiral around a conical hub the spiral being smallest in diameter at-its forward end all blades having the same length but having their tips at varying radii from the impeller axis and having varying thicknesses with the foremost blade having the greatest thickness and the rearward blade the smallest thickness, the tip of said blades lying in a single helical path.

HANS E. PERLAIN. 

